Today we’d like to introduce you to Bad Magic
Hi Bad, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Bad Magic began as a solo project that developed into a musical partnership. We aim to combine psychedelic-rock and dance music with earnest, vulnerable lyrics centered around connection and hope. The day me and Alton met I mentioned my Bad Magic project I was working on and found out he had just released an EP called ‘Bad Magick’ under his Niteppl moniker. We chose to take that as a clear sign and have been working closely together since
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Setting out to create a new project is always a difficult prospect, especially in a landscape that feels like it values authentic creative work less with each passing year. But as far as two people working together it’s hard to imagine a healthier and more positive working relationship that has really grown in to an incredibly close friendship. Our few disagreements always center around what’s best for the music
The greater challenges have come in navigating the current music climate, figuring out how to make the current marketing and distribution tools work for us without letting them consume us. There is a lot of power in the hands of artists right now but there’s also an even greater degree of uncertainty about the future. When you’re releasing music I think it’s hard to not get a bit delusional and let yourself believe it’s going to be this overnight success. While our first batch of releases may haven’t fulfilled those delusions we’re really happy with the reception
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The genesis and soul of the project was drawn from growing up in Louisiana, which to me is the cradle of all modern music. Dancing on the lawn at Jazz Fest as a child, skipping school to go see The Meters, being immersed in all of that heritage you can’t help but be massively affected as a musician. In New Orleans, nightlife is all about live music and these phenomenal funk bands. There’s an incredibly potent and intoxicating quality to the music scene down there that I’ve frankly found pretty absent on the west coast and it really all comes down to the funk. It’s a dance experience and dancing is universal
Dancing and music were the first art forms, created simultaneously. As much as I love movies, no one is moved to dancing wildly by a film, or by looking at a painting. It’s entirely unique to music. In the beginning there was no separation between the two and I see fostering that sort of primal experience as the ultimate goal in creating music. While the influence may not be immediately noticeable in our music, and I would never consider myself a funk or blues musician in the category of the amazing players in that scene, I felt drawn to try and distill some of that heritage in a way that isn’t derivative or stale but to do that I needed the help of someone like Alton
Finding a long term creative partner is in many ways similar to finding a romantic life partner. You need such a deep level of trust and confidence in the other. Especially in the studio where you’re making hundreds of small decisions every hour. You have to trust in the other enough to say “I may not wholly agree with this decision but I trust in your judgement enough to let go”. It’s very rare. So When I met Alton it really was a dream come true because he is a savant level producer/composer/arranger/musician with a staggering variety of skills and a very diverse musical background. Alton is able to take any idea no matter how small and instantly expand and develop it with a masters touch. Now After 3 years of nearly constant collaboration we have reached a point where all the lines between roles are blurred and we feel as 2 parts of the whole, we see only possibilities and feel like there’s nothing we can’t accomplish together musically. It’s a special thing that neither of us take for granted
As much as I love the studio and everything that comes with it, I’ve always seen the Bad Magic live show as the ultimate version of the project. I want to create a band that you go see when you want to dance, with a tight knit and loving community similar to those of the funk and jam band scenes I grew up around. A live show that creates powerful collective experiences that offer a little healthy escape for those in need. On that note we have our debut LA show; March 7th at El Cid and we are chomping at the bit to show what we can do
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
We try not to think of ourselves as being in the music business but instead as being in the Bad Magic business. I think everyone’s musical journey is so wildly different that it’s hard to find any real maxims or rules. Especially with how the industry has been flipped on its head 4 or 5 times in just the past 20 years. We have tried very hard to maintain our belief that if the music is great everything else will fall in to place
Obviously the elephant in the room right now is AI. There’s no denying the impact it will have on music and the greater art industry. When you’re greeted by an epochal change like AI you either embrace it or zag your own way. It’s an easy choice for us. With music the journey truly is the destination, the painstaking nature of your craft and the joy of self-discovery is the entire point. I can’t imagine giving up such a privilege for the sake of efficiency or conveniene. So we are tripling down on doing everything in the studio in the most human, vulnerable way and we think that will resonate
In the vein of big tech in music, which seeks to capture and define it, I think there is a huge emotional cost to some of the more popular social media tactics many artists have been forced to subscribe to, and I’m betting my career on those things not being a necessary evil. We feel that if we’re creating the entire product ourselves from the music to the visuals (much of which is done my wife who is a brilliant photographer) to the ads in the most hand crafted, heart felt way possible that it will find its audience eventually. But in such a chaotic time and industry nothing is certain, all we know is we love making music together and have no plans of slowing down anytime soon
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/badmagicbad
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badmagicbad/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibR2BjwPRts
